Young civil service officials may often find it difficult to understand the issues of society, for which they might need the help of politicians, Governor P. Sathasivam has said. He was speaking after inaugurating the fifth annual celebrations of the N.S.S. Academy of Civil Services.
“What one should remember is that the challenge you may face in your job is one of understanding the issues of society. It is always easy to blame the politicians and look down upon them as less educated, but at times the learned official may have to learn from those people, whose education has been provided by the harsh social realities of our times. And, let us not forget that in assessing people’s problems and issues, they could be right,” he said. The Governor said the stiff competition in the field had brought Civil Services training on a par with the usual entrance coaching that aimed at catching people young.
‘Not living machines’
“There is no harm in beginning early, but initial years should be used to enlighten youngsters on the social realities, rather than merely training them in cracking objective type questions with the speed of computers. What we need is perfected human potential, not living machines tuned only to an exam and not to social realities,” he said.
He said that the role of the civil servant in a democracy is to carry out governance in tune with the policies of the elected government in such a way that his or her actions uphold the law and the provisions of the Constitution.
“Article 311 of the Constitution provides for protection of the civil servant from politically motivated or vindictive actions,” the Governor said.
